For a Pessimist I'm Pretty Optimistic
by OnTheWinterSolstice
Summary: Continuation of oneshots written for Kristinaexpressive! This is a collab story written by the two of us. Features EvraxOC and DarrenxOC.
1. Chapter 2

**So this is going to take place after the last chapter in J'adore les Serpents. Its written by Kristinaexpressive and I, and we will be switching back and forth. So there will be two stories to keep up with. This is from Kristina's POV.**

**CHAPTER 1**

"Marisa?" I murmured. She was lying on the ground next to another guy, clutching a bunch of roses to her chest and smiling happily.

"What's up?" asked Evra, craning his neck to look behind him.

"Who's that guy?" I inquired.

"Oh, that's Darren. He's my best friend here at the Cirque."

Still shocked by seeing Marisa here I nodded distractedly and stood, pulling Evra with me. We walked over and I saw Marisa sit up, her bright eyes wide with curiosity. She hastily hauled Darren up with her.

Now we faced each other awkwardly. It soon melted when Marisa flashed one of her warm smiles and said, "Small world, huh?"

I laughed. "Yes, very…"

"Well, I'm Marisa, by the way," she said happily, holding out a hand to Evra. I noticed she had a bandage around her wrist.

He glanced uneasily at her. "You don't mind touching me?" he asked skeptically.

She smiled and looked at me. "When you're best friend has an obsession with snakes, you kind of get used to it." With that she grasped his hand and shook it firmly. Evra smiled.

"And anyway, _I _had to put up with her love of spiders," I said teasingly.

Darren gaped at her. "You like spiders?"

"Yeah! Why?"

"I do too!"

Marisa laughed. "Holy crap, could we be any more compatible?"

I introduced myself to Darren.

Suddenly I yawned. I turned aside, trying to hide it, but Darren saw me.

"Hey Evra, I think you should take Kristina to bed," he said.

"That's what she said…" Marisa murmured, grinning at me. We exploded with laughter. The boys stared at us, confused, but we didn't even bother to explain.

As I yawned again, Evra led me back to the tents and caravans and into his tent. He allowed me to sleep in his cot. When he stretched out on the floor I peeked over the edge at him.

"Why aren't you sleeping in the other bed?" I asked.

Evra glanced at it. "Oh that's Darren's."

A voice drifted in from outside.

"Hey mom I'm sleeping over at Kristina's. That OK?" Darren and Marisa entered the tent, the latter holding a cell phone to her ear. "Yea…OK. Love you too, bye."

I reached for my own phone and gave my parents a quick call to let them know I was "spending the night at Marisa's house."

I looked at Marisa, only to find her arguing with Darren.

"No, I think_ you _should sleep in the bed." Darren said.

"What if I don't _want _to sleep there? What if I want you to be happy? And you can't be happy if you're sleeping on the ground." Marisa glanced at Evra who shot her a dirty look. "Sorry," she mumbled.

"Yes and I care more about you're happiness than I do mine so just get in the bed!" Darren said, frustrated.

But I knew Marisa. She could win any argument, and eventually she'd have her way.

Evra sat up and whispered in my ear, "They sound like they're already married." I giggled.

"Then let me sleep on the floor," Marisa said. Her eyes flashed coldly, and I could tell she was getting frustrated. Even if it was her parents, her voice turned condescending and she could be pretty harsh. Either Darren caught the look, or he respected her enough to listen to her, but he sighed and slipped under the covers, turning his back to the rest of us.

Evra kissed me quietly goodnight, and I was somewhat surprised when Darren didn't do the same. Marisa appeared genuinely hurt as she lay down on the ground. But I didn't think it any further because as soon as I closed my eyes I was asleep.

***

The next morning I awoke to the smell of sausages. Groaning, I sat up and stretched. Nobody else was awake. I noticed with a smile that sometime in the night Marisa had gotten tired of the hard ground and gotten into bed with Darren. He had his face buried in her brown hair.

I poked Evra with my foot. He stirred, mumbled something, and opened his eyes. I smiled at him. "Morning," I whispered. He opened his mouth to reply but I put a finger to my lips and nodded at the pair across from us. Evra glanced at them, and shook his head, smiling. Beckoning me with his hand, he led me out of the tent. While walking we passed a few other performers I recognized from the shows, and they greeted me openly. Eventually we arrived at a fire pit, where Rhamus Twobellies—a man who literally had two stomachs and could eat anything—fried sausages over the orange flames.

"Ah, Evra! And friend, I see!" He bellowed.

I blushed as Evra put his arm around me. Rhamus laughed as he handed us each a sausage. As we sat on a log and munched greedily on our breakfast meat, Darren and Marisa arrived. They each grabbed a sausage and sat beside us.

"Mr. Crepsley has some chores for us, Evra," Darren said.

"Who's Mr. Crepsley?" I asked.

"He's an old vampire, also Darren's mentor," explained Evra. I nearly choked on my sausage. "You're a vampire?" I asked Darren.

"Well, half. So I can still go out in sunlight and I'm not as strong or fast as a normal vampire."

"Wow!" I said.

"Anyway, so you girls are going to be on your own for the day."

Marisa and I leaned forward and smiled at each other. "We can manage," Marisa said.

"We always do." I replied. We laughed.

As soon as we finished eating Darren and Evra headed off to do whatever wacky chores Mr. Crepsley had planned for them.

Marisa and I decided to sunbathe in the field. We sat in silence for a while.

"So, how did you meet Evra?" she asked.

I told her everything that had happened. Afterwards she told me all that had happened with her and Darren.

"And that's how I got this," she held out her wrist. _So that's why there was a bandage!_

The day passed by quickly. We talked and talked, and didn't see the boys until sunset.

As the sun dipped below the horizon and tie-dyed the sky red, orange, and purple, we headed back to the tent. When we got there we found Darren and Evra changing into their performance costumes.

"Come on," Evra said. He already had his white robe on. He grasped my hand and escorted me through the backdoor of the theatre. I found myself backstage. Peeking through the blood red curtains, I saw people already milling about in the seating area.

"You and Marisa can watch the show, if you want," he said quietly. I nodded excitedly and dashed back to the tent.

"Where's Marisa?" I asked worriedly when I saw she wasn't there.

"Went to call her mom," he muttered, busy fixing the tie of his dusty, cobwebbed suit.

"She's going to be a handful," I advised. "You sure you can handle that?"

Darren gave up on his tie and met my gaze. "I think I found that out last night," he said. "If I didn't like her I would have given up then. But I like that she's stubborn. She's not a conforming push-over like most other girls these days." He paused. "You don't seem like one either."

I thanked him. Just then Marisa walked in and I told her what Evra had said.

She kissed Darren (for "good luck" so she said), and we sneaked around to the front of the theatre. We obscured ourselves in the crowd of babbling people trying to get in. Mr. Tall was taking tickets. He gave us one look and waved us through.

We headed to the very front row. Settling in our seats, we began to talk eagerly, excited to see the two guys we liked in the show. And we were together this time!

Suddenly someone sat next to Marisa, stretching out like a cat. Marisa was kind of in the way, but I could tell he had blonde hair, about our age, with lean muscles and wicked green eyes.

Marisa pulled out her phone, typed something, and handed it to me.

_Dang he's hot! _It read.

I smiled and nodded.

"Hey," the boy said to us.

"Hi," Marisa replied. She was always a very skeptical person, and she never trusted anyone right away.

"What are two girls doing here?" he asked.

Marisa bristled. "What, you think girls like us can't handle a freak show?"

The boy seemed a little taken aback, but he quickly shook it off and grinned wolfishly.

"I'm Kristina," I said, before things got nasty.

He looked at Marisa expectantly. She hesitated. "I'm Marisa," she finally said.

He grinned that grin of his again. "And I'm Steve, nice to meet you."


	2. Chapter 4

**Here's installment 2 (technically 4)!!!! Again, if you get into this story u need to switch back and forth between mine and Kristinaexpressive's. this is kristina's POV.**

**CHAPTER 2**

Stormy thoughts thundered in my mind as I followed Marisa back to Evra's tent, where Evra and Darren were already sitting and talking.

"Hey," Darren said, sweeping Marisa into his arms and kissing her. He stopped after a moment. Marisa had one of her hi-I'm-not-here-at-the-moment-so-please-leave-a-message-after-the-beep looks. Darren brushed her hair back and she seemed to snap out of it. "You OK?" he asked.

I wondered if her thoughts were on Steve. Suddenly I knew I needed to tell someone about this.

"Evra, can I talk to you?" I asked. He seemed to sense the urgency in my voice, so he stood and brought me outside.

"What's up?" he asked gently.

"It's…It's Marisa. When we were watching the show this guy named Steve sat next to us and they started flirting. Then Steve kissed her at the end of the show. She swears she didn't kiss him back, but I know her. She's the type of person who always wants that adventure and spice in her life. What if she decides to start hanging out with Steve?"

When I had mentioned Steve, recognition flashed behind Evra's reptilian eyes.

"This could be very, very bad," he said quietly. Glancing at the entrance of the tent, he said, "If this is the Steve I'm thinking, he and Darren used to be best friends. They went to the Cirque together, and Steve asked Mr. Crepsley to make him a vampire. But Mr. C said he had evil blood. Steve swore to kill him. Then Darren stole Mr. C's spider, Madame Octa, and she bit Steve. To save him Darren had to become Mr. C's assistant…" here he paused. "Darren faked his death and after Mr. C dug him out of his grave, Steve found him in the cemetery. He threatened Darren, saying once he was strong enough; he would find him and kill him."

I gasped. "So…Do you think Steve is here to…_kill_ Darren?"

Evra nodded solemnly. "But I also don't like that fact that Steve is making the moves on Marisa. He may be up to something."

All of a sudden a dark shadow flitted past us. "What was that?" Evra asked, alarmed. "Was it a person?"

"I think so…" I said thoughtfully. Nothing else happened, so we brushed it off.

"You need to tell Darren about Steve and Marisa," said Evra seriously.

I paused. "But I promised I wouldn't…"

Darren appeared around the corner. "What's taking you guys so long?"

Evra looked at me. I looked at him.

"Darren, let's take a walk…" Evra said.

As they headed off, I reentered the tent. Marisa was lying on her back on Darren's bed, twiddling her thumbs absent-mindedly.

I settled on Evra's bed. Before I could open my mouth to speak Darren suddenly darted in and grabbed Marisa harshly. Hauling her to her feet he slammed her against the wall and held her in place.

"Darren, what are you doing?" I cried. He ignored me. He growled audibly and put his face inches from Marisa's. Her eyes were wide with fright.

"You kissed Steve?" Darren shouted.

Marisa spluttered words, but couldn't seem to make a coherent sentence.

Just then Evra raced in, panting hard.

"Darren! No! She…" He bent over and put his hands on his knees with exhaustion.

Marisa yelped with pain when Darren squeezed her arms. That was enough for me. I ran at him and seized his waist, trying to yank him backwards. Marisa's eyes leaked salty tears—from pain or fear, I didn't know—but Darren didn't stop. Evra helped me get him off of Marisa, and as soon as she was free she sprinted out of the tent. Darren was breathing hard, and I could almost see steam erupting from his ears.

Evra held him back while I ran out to find Marisa. I finally spotted her sitting in the field, where she had gone before with Darren. Her knees were drawn up to her chest and her sobs flowed across the grass and into my ears.

I rushed up to her and wrapped my arms around her comfortingly.

"Why did you tell him?" she whimpered.

"I didn't! I told Evra…He thought Darren needed to know. You don't know his background with Steve…" I trailed off as Marisa pulled away and checked her arm. Even in the dark I could see the bruises already gracing her pale skin.

"Marisa!" Darren's voice wafted across the breeze toward us. I stood up as he approached. Marisa turned her back to him and cried even harder.

I put a hand on his arm. "Be gentle," I whispered.

**Sorry this is short. I hate short updates, too. But whatever lol. Review please!!!**


	3. Chapter 6

**Well! This chapter SUCKS. Just sayin'. Fair warning :)**

**CHAPTER 3 (TECHINCALLY 6)**

I was happy to see Marisa and Darren walk back in, hand in hand. I didn't know whether they would make up or not, but I was glad they did.

The two spent most of the night talking, but Evra and I fell asleep soon enough. Again, he slept on the floor and I slept in his bed.

When I woke the next morning Darren and Evra were already gone. I figured they had some chores to do. Late morning sunlight filtered through the fabric ceiling of the tent and I blinked lazily while my eyes adjusted.

Standing, I moved to Marisa and shook her awake. Once she was sitting up, she said that her mom wanted her to check in at home today.

"I also said that I was spending the rest of the week at your house, since school's out," she explained.

We found Darren and Evra cleaning the wolf man's cage, and notified them that we were momentarily returning home.

"Just be back soon, K?" Evra said, inspecting a bone, then flinging it disgustedly into a nearby bucket.

***

We arrived back at the Cirque at 3. We wore fresh clothes and each had a backpack stuffed with clothes and accessories and other toiletries.

We trekked around the Cirque tents and caravans, but couldn't find Darren or Steve anywhere.

"They out hunting," a voice said from behind us. We whipped around. A beautiful woman in a flowing purple gown stood smiling warm behind us.

"You're the bearded lady!" Marisa exclaimed.

"Truska," the woman said, holding out a hand to each of us. We shook it. "I also costumer."

Marisa's mouth fell open. "Can I see the costumes?!"

Truska smiled and nodded. Marisa handed me her bag then raced after Truska, who led her away to a nearby caravan. Once they vanished from sight I waved. "Kay, that's cool. Just leave me," I said sarcastically. Sighing, I returned to Evra's tent and set down our bags. I decided to take a nap. The miles of walking had worn me out, and suddenly I was dead-tired. Just as I lay down, a rustle outside my tent caught my attention. I listened harder, and heard footsteps. I assumed it was a performer and relaxed my head into the soft pillow.

"Kristina?" It felt like only a few minutes later when I opened my eyes and found Evra shaking me. He smiled.

"Where's Marisa?" I heard Darren ask, a tinge of worry in his tone.

"She went with Truska," I said.

Darren began heading out, just as someone raced in. They collided with a painful thud and collapsed back into the room. A sharp cry alerted me that the incomer was Marisa. I sat up and looked at the pair. Marisa was sprawled across Darren's chest, mumbling apologies over and over while Darren—along with Evra—laughed his head off. Darren helped her to her feet, when I noticed she had changed outfits. I pointed it out to her.

Marisa beamed. Twirling, she said, "Do you like it? I made it with Truska!" I observed her new clothes. She wore a spaghetti-strap summer dress—made of white cotton—with floral knitting on the chest and hem, that stopped above her knees.

"That's so pretty!" I marveled, bounding forward and inspecting the soft fabric.

"You made it?" asked Evra, also coming forward.

"Yep! I'm really into fashion and all that," said Marisa, smiling proudly.

We hadn't heard Darren's opinion yet. I turned and faced him, only to find him staring, open-mouthed, at Marisa. I giggled and looked at Marisa again, who also noticed Darren's admiring gaze. She blushed profusely and shifted from foot to foot. Darren slowly edged forward.

"You look…stunning," he said with a small smile.

Marisa beamed and hugged him tightly, thanking him.

Suddenly a thump outside stopped us dead.

"What was that?" I asked. Nobody moved.

Darren moved toward the entrance and peeked out. After a moment he shook his head. "Nothing."

Was it nothing? I'd been hearing things all day, like I was being followed.

"I think we should investigate it," Marisa said. Darren glanced at her, almost surprised. He grabbed her and kissed her gently. "It's probably nothing," he murmured, stroking her hair.

No one else heard the low chuckle form outside. No one else heard the pad of footsteps moving away from the tent.


	4. Chapter 8

**Heeeeeey ya'll **** quick thanks to the reviewers, and, of course, Miss Kristina **** love you!!**

**I apologize for the idiocy of this chapter…im choosing not to review and edit it…and I have a lot on my brain.**

**CHAPTER …..errrrr….cant remember…4? Or is it 7 now? Or 8? Whatever.**

I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket and hurriedly whipped it out. The screen radiated Marisa's name.

"Hello?" I asked anxiously. Before I got a response she hung up. I knew something must be wrong. I raced toward the park, but couldn't see Marisa anywhere. I began to worry. I tore across the grass, away from the main crowd, toward the playground and pond. I arrived just in time to see Steve punch Marisa in the head. She teetered on her feet for a moment, then crumpled to the ground.

With a cry, I sprinted at Steve and caught him by surprise. With him off-guard, I was able to get in a punch directly in his face. Blood gushed out of his nose, but he wasn't fazed. With a quick swipe, I went flying through the air. I smacked into a tree, and slid to the ground. I rubbed my head and blinked dizzily. Once my head was cleared, I looked to the water, but couldn't see Steve or Marisa anywhere. The only clue of a struggle was the few drops of blood sprinkled on the grass.

Cursing silently, I ran back to the Cirque du Freak.

"Evra!" I shouted. My hoarse voice stung my scratchy throat. In no time at all Evra and Darren walked into view.

"Hi to you, too," he said teasingly as they approached.

Darren tensed. "Where's Marisa?"

"I…She…I think Steve took her!" I panted.

Evra's mouth fell open. Darren grabbed my arm and pulled me to him. "What?" he exclaimed.

I took a deep breath and explained how Steve had showed up here and persuaded Marisa to meet him at the park. Then I described how I tried to stop him. I saw genuine hurt in Darren's eyes, and felt sorry for him.

"It was just to hear his side of the story, and find out why he was here," I said softly. "I told you she would be a handful."

Darren stared into my eyes for a few moments, before releasing me and moving away, clutching his hair exasperatedly. "Did you see them leave?"

I shook my head.

He squeezed his eyes shut. "Were you with her?"

I blinked. "I was. Sort of…But Steve hurt me and they were gone before I could do anything more."

"How could they have left so fast?" Evra inquired. I shrugged. Darren's head snapped up.

"No, no…" he mumbled after a moment of thought.

All of a sudden Mr. Crepsley appeared out of the gloom. "Come, Darren, we are going hunting."

Darren ignored him and started pacing. Evra and I watched him like we were observing a particularly interesting tennis match.

He snapped his fingers. "Mr. Crepsley! I need your help."

The old vampire sighed. "With what?"

I led them all to the park. When we reached the area where I had last seen Steve and Marisa, Mr. Crepsley halted, sniffing the air.

"Vampaneze," he whispered. Darren bent down to the grass, inspected it, then straightened back up.

"It's on the grass," he said. He then went on to repeat what I had explained earlier.

Mr. Crepsley remained silent for several moments. "Vampaneze are here," he finally said.

"Does…Does this mean Steve…" Darren trailed off, horror flooding his eyes.

Mr. Crepsley nodded grimly. "Your friend Steve is a vampaneze."

"What's that?" I asked. Mr. Crepsley quickly explained the belief differences between vampires and vampaneze. "They are merciless, which means your friend may already be dead."

**DUN DUN DUUUUNNN.**

**BA DA BA BA DA BA BA DA!!!!**

**Review!**


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